Wednesday, May 09, 2012

So it's been a week of learning more web stuff. I set up a virtual Linux server in the Amazon cloud, and installed the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP). Surprisingly, I actually got the Apache welcome page when I browsed to the site! I didn't think it would all work the first time around without an error.

The last couple days were googling around to make sure the site is locked down and secure. My ericdsouza.com & laumoda.com sites are on Amazon S3 -- they're just static content; Amazon provides the web services so I don't need to worry about security. However, for the virtual Linux server, it's the same as if I set up a physical server at home that's accessible to the web -- I need to take care of patching and security etc.

I have yet another 'Hello World' page up today, this one generated from PHP. Next is to create a database, load it with test data from the Wizard Stats spreadsheet, and then display the results of a query on a web page. Thanks to all the free tutorials on the web, this looks to be straightforward, although security will probably be more work than the web page itself.

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Today's Heather's birthday, and we're having dinner at home. At first it was going to be a multi-course meal, south american inspired, with ceviche to start and then grilled chicken with quinoa. But when I was buying the halibut I forgot it was just for one course and bought 380g. So we changed the menu and we're having ceviche as the main. It's 'cooking' right now, in lime juice, garlic and coriander in the fridge.

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I'm cleared to play Ultimate again this Sunday! I hurt my right foot in hockey three months ago (to the day -- Feb 9). My talus bone took most of the impact, and stretched the ligaments that hold it into place. Scar tissue built up, holding the talus in not exactly the right spot, blocking my ability to bend my foot properly. With physio they're trying to break down the scar tissue, and have the muscles build up to keep it in the right place. I'm okay to play this Sunday, with a brace. I'll have to use the brace for about a year when I play sports or go for long walks. (Hockey is okay cause the skate provides the same ankle support as the brace).

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Well I have to go chop up some more coriander and the like for dinner.

Friday, May 04, 2012

I migrated my ericdsouza.com domain from enom to GoDaddy, mostly because it's way cheaper ($60 / year at enom vs $15 for the same service at GoDaddy). It takes a few days to process once you request it. I also opted for anonymous registration, which means a 3rd party actually registers the domain (for all internet domains, you can look up whois databases and get details about the registrar, which causes spam amongst other bad things). The transfer occurred earlier this week, and the next step was to set up a new website for ericdsouza.com using hype and hosted on AWS. In the past I've used Google / Blogger to host websites (cause it's free), but the templates are limited, and there's Blogger and Google badges on the site.

So the next little project is to automate the stats for Wizard (the card game that my Ultimate friends play). We keep annual stats and have a trophy (which I've won once). The stats are a bit complex, 50% for wins (weighted for number of players), and 50% for percentage points of the winner (so if the winner had say 200 points and you got 150 points, that's 75%). We added the percentage points because too many people were playing favourites if they were out of the game. Now at least there's a reason to keep playing for yourself.

Currently the stats require manual data entry of the game's scores into a Google spreadsheet, which then has a bunch of formulas and a manual sort step to create the leaderboard. The leaderboard is shared out over the web (it's just a checkbox on Google docs to activate). It's at bit.ly/WizardStandings2012.

I'd like to change the Wizard app so that it can output a data file as an email attachment. I'll need to set up an email pipe to a script, which then updates a database. The leaderboard is then driven from the database. There's also some sort of security needed to prevent anyone from uploading a datafile. You'd need to know the email address, which is probably good enough for our use case; I was thinking of something additional like using gmail rules to forward only emails with specific details onto the pipe.

The idea is to do this in AWS so that I can learn how to use it. The good part is it's all free! Amazon has a free usage tier for the first year, and after that, almost all of it would continue to be free because it's below the threshold where Amazon starts charging.

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We only had 8 skaters for our hockey game last night, and we were on the big ice (Rink A). I was more tired after last night than the four games in three days over the tournament last weekend. (I probably had more total ice time last night than the tournament). We lost 5-4, I had at least an assist.

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The WD40 store on Queen St E near Carlaw that looked like it was going to be an Irish pub is up for lease again. I wonder if the liquor license application was turned down? Anyways that's too bad, it's a great place for a pub. We've been amazed at how popular WAYLA (right beside the WD40 store) has become. There's been line-ups with a bouncer outside the last couple times we've walked by at night. Line-ups!! In Leslieville!

We're having veal loin chops with arugula for dinner tonight, I have to go chop up the garlic. It tastes better if the garlic's added to the veal a couple hours before grilling.